Easy Pizza Dough Recipe

Whenever I used to think about making pizza, the dough making held me back. I mean anybody can come up with a bunch of toppings and a sauce, right? For pizza dough on the other hand you definitely need an expert or something like that. Well, not really.

This is the dough recipe that I’m using every time I make pizza and I never failed. It is very fast and easy to make, and nice thing about it, you don’t have to let it rise, if you don’t want to. Personally I like my crust very thin and not very crispy because I would rather enjoy the toppings than fill myself with bread. However, if you like the puffy/fluffy style you should let it rise for about an hour or more. The quantity that you get after making my recipe, will be enough for two large pizzas, about 16″ in diameter, or three medium 12″.

You’ll need a cup and a half of warm water in which you dissolved a tsp of sugar and a pack of instant yeast (2¼ tsp). Now there is a weird thing going on with the altitude and/or air humidity because ever since I moved to Calgary I had to use two cups of water but you might be ok with my original recipe. If you notice that your dough comes out a bit too hard, just add some water but not more than another half of cup. The quantity of a ⅓ cup of olive oil is the same.

Add 4 cups of flour and a tsp of salt in the bowl of your mixer, then add the ⅓ cup of olive oil, the activated yeast and whatever herbs you might want to add and give it a serious swirl. Did I mention I love my Pro KitchenAid mixer?

Continue mixing, until everything is well incorporated. Shape the dough into a ball. The dough should be very elastic. You can also get creative, like adding some herbs like oregano or weird spices. I actually made one with maple syrup but make sure you don’t pour too much or it will turn into a cracker in the oven.

In 1½ cups warm water pour sugar and yeast; let yeast activate for 5 minutes or until becomes frothy.

In the bowl of your mixer, add the flour and salt and mix. Add the olive oil and using the dough hook, mix for about a min.

Add the yeast combo to the flour mixture and mix until well incorporated. Shape the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, rubbing oil on the dough as well, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. If you’re not using the dough right away, you can also freeze it.

After you mix you can then roll out right away. Refrigeration is just if you want it on stand by for future use? I have a bread machine that it’s sole purpose is for pizza dough but I also have the kitchenaid….nice knowing that I have a backup option without having to replace anything.

Nope! You can use it right away. If you let it rise, it becomes a bit too fluffy for my taste but you will probably notice that anyway if you store dough in the fridge for later use, it will rise like crazy. You can also experiment see which style you like the most, nothing bad will happen, your pizza will always be delicious.

I wanted to take the time to comment, you are a life saver! This recipe is gorgeous, very easy to make, tried and true, I use it for everything from pizza dough, to piza roll ups, and now Im making garlic knots with this same recipe just different waiting time on the rising
I love that you combine and use the mix
Thank you for publishing this recipe! Be well!

I was always put off by, the kneading kneading then the rising for hours. Today I made your dough. Put one portion in the freege for lunch and then cut up portions and froze them. This was the best pizza I have ever eaten. I put herbs in the dough and tomatoes garlic ginger and cheese on the top. The base was melt in the mouth thin and crispy. I love you girl. And wish best wishes for you and you family all the way from Bonnie Scotland x

For everyone asking about temperature and time, most of her recipes call for 500F/250C, for 10-15 minutes. I check at 10 minutes and keep peeking through the oven window until the edges are golden brown.

Thank for this recipe, it is by far my favorite go-to for pizza night!

I want to use your recipe to make a school cafeteria dish from my childhood. It was a meat roll probably using canned beef at that time. Rolled up in a yeast dough, cut into pinwheels and baked. Do you have a recipe like this?

I want to find a way to form my crusts and then freeze them on pizza circles until ready to use. Would I need to par cook them first BEFORE FREEZING? Also, could they go into the oven in the frozen state if I did that?

This is what I do, make the dough, cut the piece that I want/need and make the pizza. The leftover I shape it into a ball or whatever shape you want and freeze it. When I want to make another pizza, I take it from he fridge and give it time to thaw; I am not using it frozen.

Wish I could figure out what I’d did wrong? I followed directions exactly but my dough did not look like your pictures. Seemed like it had to much liquid, so I added more flour which resulted in a tougher crust. Loved the flavor though! In the picture with the water and yeast it looks like 1 cup of water. Did you add the additional 1/2 cup later?

Yes, I did! The recipe I wrote worked the best for me but baking is not an exact science unless you make the same thing over and over in the same conditions and location. I found easier to add more water and have the dough softer then the other way around, because adding more flour than needed, can turn into a nightmare. In your case, I would remove a quarter of cup of water next time and see what happens but you can keep the rest of the ingredients the same.

I have a few issues if anyone might know how to fix them: 1. No matter what I do the dough is always sticky… I mean its a mess. I flour my hands, flour the work area, ect. But it still sticks really bad. The dough mixes and rises in a bread maker and I follow the recipe exactly (i’ve tried a few others too, similar issue with stickiness) but its still like molding glue. Any thoughts? I mean I easily go through adding a extra 5 cups of floor just to get it stretched… Which I think causes my next issue: 2. My dough can be 3 inches thick but it always tears! Needless to say, tossing it isnt happening. Is that due to the unending amounts of flour im having to use to make it workable or is the dough not setting right?

I live in Alabama (high humidity, no AC/Heat but im doing this in the summer) if that can be a factor… Any help is appreciated because I would really like to work out these kinks! Thank you in advance!

1. super sticky usually means too much water, adjust the quantity as needed.
2. yep, too much flower. you will get better results if you lower the water quantity from the start.
3. humidity and altitude are usually important factors.
Start with 1 cup of water and see how it goes. I try to avoid adding more flour to a recipe because it tends to turn things for the worse but you can always add a bit more water if it is too hard. Baby steps and you will find the perfect combination that works for you. Most of the times, even the flour quality can be a factor. Baking is not exact science I’m afraid.

I’m always looking for a good pizza dough recipe. Yours looks simple enough (for me), however, you indicate you use olive oil. There are so many different kinds of olive oil. Do you use Extra Virgin Olive Oil or just plain olive oil? Would you mind letting me know which brand you use? Thank you

I like the recipe. I’m goig to try it out tomorrow for lunch.
As far as the funny stuff you mentioned happening with the water increase, it’s because of the altitude. Ran into the same when I lived in Vegas. Was @ 2600ft and I did have to make adjustments to liquid in recipes.
Hope that helps.